Kaleo has released a new live video for their latest single, “Lonely Cowboy,” filmed at the famed Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. In introducing the performance, front man JJ Julius Son quips, “A young man came up to me and asked me if I was a real cowboy. And I said, ‘No son, I’m from Iceland.'”
In making a song about such a classically American image, Julius Son tells ABC Audio, “Part of being a writer is really just daydreaming.”
“I wrote [the Kaleo song] ‘Automobile’ before ever visiting America, which is basically about driving around California,” Julius Son shares. “[It] depends on if you’re telling stories from your own life, but sometimes it’s also just, music writing to me is just daydreaming, putting yourself in other people’s shoes.”
That Julius Son would daydream about being a cowboy is probably not a surprise to anyone who’s seen Kaleo live. He often sports a cowboy hat during concerts and rocks a fringed jacket in the Grand Ole Opry video.
“Obviously I do like Westerns, and I do like the lifestyle, the Western lifestyle and stuff from back in the day,” Julius Son says. “I like cowboy songs a lot. I was listening to a lot of [outlaw country artist] Marty Robbins for awhile.”
Julius Son has also performed “Lonely Cowboy” in a place even more historic than the Grand Ole Opry: the Rome Colosseum. Kaleo filmed an acoustic video inside the ancient arena in between filming a full electric concert outside of it in March.
“We kinda had to rush in there and try to capture this before it got dark, because I wanted to do it during daylight,” Julius Son shares. “[I’m] just very lucky, actually, to get the permission from them, so I’m grateful. They were very nice.”
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